Paris, nous t’aimons!

It’s our first full day in Paris and we woke up early to make the most of it! First on the list is a stop at the brassiere by our Airbnb, then we’re off to see the Catacombs! 

We got in line right at open, just sipping our coffee & tea eating our pastries. My backpack has a CrossFit patch on it and someone behind us says “Hey, you guys CrossFit?” We were like “Yeah.” Then were like, oh my god, you’re Emily Abbott! And with her was Lucas Parker! 

Both are CrossFit Games athletes and we were just floored and maybe a little giddy… We ended up just chatting away, which made the hour and a half wait in line fly by, then we enjoyed the whole catacombs tour with them. It was just beyond amazing, Emily and Lucas are so funny and down to earth. Zaq and I were definitely on a serotonin high for the rest of the day! 

Below are some of my favorite photos from our walk through the catacombs. I had to constantly remind myself that these were REAL people, 2 million people’s worth! 

After that we went to grab some lunch while we were waiting for our time slot to climb the Towers of Notre Dame, we found this little restaurant off a side street, the smells drew us in and the menu on the door made it a must! They had frog legs and Zaq and I wanted to try them. They were delicious! So was the Prawn with creme risotto I got. Zaq got the duck breast with fresh made gnocchi and peaches. 

While sitting there a couple sat next to us and overheard us speaking English, they were American as well and were from Utah, both had just quite there jobs to travel Europe for a while. We chatted the rest of our meals and traded tips for traveling and all that, so brave of them! I love traveling, but I also love my job…and stability hahaha. 

It was our turn to climb the Towers of Notre Dame, the gargoyles are so detailed and the view is of course spectacular! 

We even got to see the big bells! 

One short metro ride later we found ourselves right under the Arc de Triophm. 

At this point in our travels…it’ll be too soon if we have to climb one more stair! But, we climbed our butts up the stairs and the 360 degree view was so cool! I really enjoyed watching all the traffic converge and brave the no rules intersection. 

Next, on to the Louvre! There were a couple paintings we were looking for in particular, but overall the Louvre is HUGE! I can definitely see why most make a whole day of it. We headed straight to the Denon wing, where all the Italian painting are, including the coveted Mona Lisa. 

We looked at all the amazing statues 

Then we headed over to the Richelieu Wing to check out the North European paintings, there was quite a few there that stole my compete attention. We both got lost in the art; one painting in particular had captured the emotion of devistation so well on is subjects face. A man who had returned home from battle to find his wife deceased and his daughter ill, clinging to his leg, soon to follow. The artist captured this mans face so well, I felt for him, and wanted to cry with him. I’ve never had art get to me like that before, I found it foreign and astonishing, that a painting could make me feel so strong. I have no pictures, because some moments are best as memories. ❤️ 

We then explored the Sully Wing and went to see the French paintings and sculptures. Zaq was searching for this famous painting, as it was the first to break the 4th wall. 

After walking all wings of the Louvre we were ready for dinner and Zaq had one more box to check, try some Absinthe. So we walked to a restaurant with good reviews called L’Absinthe. Perfect. 

There we got pig ears with beef roots and seafood ravioli, tellement bon! Zaq got his Absinthe too, it was a very cool process, they bring you the Absinthe in a glass and this ice water container the drips over a sugar cube into the Absinthe. It takes about 10 minutes before you can drink it. 

After that full day, we were pretty tuckered out, so we hopped on the metro to hit they hay! 

bonne nuit jusqu’à demain!

~A&Z